"When Michael (Jordan, the team's managing partner) told my agent they were interested, I was flattered," Howard recalled. "They're not a lock to be a playoff team, but they're very talented. They have enough talent to win ball games and the right coach.

"I call him, 'The fixer-upper.'"

Howard meant Larry Brown. Despite all their mutual travels -- Howard has played for six NBA franchises and Brown has coached nine -- they'd never worked together. Howard was curious what he could learn from Brown.

Brown was just as interested what his young players could learn from Howard.

"The value of a Juwan Howard and a Nazr Mohammed? You can't even put a percentage on that," Brown said of this young team's need for mentors. "They're so smart, there's nothing they can experience in a game that they haven't already been through.

"I love guys who can give you input on how to do things better."

Brown said during training camp he's never coached such a young team in the pros. He hoped Mohammed, a 10th-season veteran, would compensate for that, serving as a conduit between the players and the coaches.

Mohammed doesn't play much, so there's only so much he can do as conduit. Howard is getting steady, if limited, minutes, and he's accepted Brown's charge to offer candid feedback to both coaches and players.

With the coaches, that might be suggesting an alternative way to guard a particular opponent during a pregame shootaround. With the players, it means reminding the young guys how you practice is just as important as how you play.

Ask Howard, a member of Michigan's Fab Five recruiting class in 1991, how he's lasted so long, and he answers "passion." He injects that word into nearly every sentence concerning Basketball.

To him, "passion" is tested on the practice court and in the weight room. Howard has enticed Ryan Hollins and Alexis Ajinca to lift more with the argument that strength staves off injury.

It's easier to sell that logic when you're nearly 36 and don't seem to have an ounce more fat than you did at 22. Or when you generated six points and four rebounds in just over 14 minutes off the bench Saturday against the Milwaukee Bucks.

Howard doesn't delude himself that he's still a 22-point, eight-rebound All-Star. But he's effective enough in short spurts to fill in at either forward spot or at center against a small team.

"My goal is to bring energy when we need to spell a (Boris) Diaw or (Emeka) Okafor. For those few minutes, I need to play harder than my opponent," Howard said.

The only way to do that at 35 is through efficiency.

"I'm not saying I didn't have a pretty good Basketball IQ when I was younger," Howard said, "but when you're younger, you think, 'I can get it done with athleticism, quickness and youth.'

"When you're older, you realize, 'I can get it done by outthinking my opponent.'"

To see more of The Charlotte Observer, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.charlotteobserver.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Charlotte Observer, N.C. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.